A three year old child died of malnutrition last Friday in
Uribia, a town of Colombia located in the department of La Guajira, mostly
inhabited by the indigenous population Wayuu. The lack of water in recent years
has taken the lives of nearly 5,000 children, according to Javier Rojas, leader
of the Association of Traditional Indigenous Authorities Shipia Wayuu Wayuu.
The more than 400,000 people who make up this community live 365 days a year
with temperatures between 35 and 42 degrees, without water. Since a mining
company was installed more than 10 years in the region, there has been a decline
in the possibilities to access the liquid. The deaths make clear the drama that
is lived.
The case has already reached the Inter-American Commission
on Human Rights (IACHR), which called on Wednesday the Colombian Government to
explain what measures it has taken to address this community and follow up to
any attempts they have made to solve the food crisis that also affects those
indigenous peoples. At the end of the process, according to Carolina Sáchica,
the lawyer handling the case on behalf of the Wayuu, they expect to recover the
water from the largest water resource in the area, the Rancheria River, which
was dammed for the exclusive use of companies expected engaged in coal mining.
